SCARCE Obsolete MOUNT COOK Airlines NEW ZEALAND Commercial Pilot's WING Brevet

One of TWO similar examples that I have currently listed (The other has "Mount Cook Airlines" wording)

VERY RARE badge out of use for MANY decades PART of an OLD COLLECTION only recently broken-up

An EARLY aviation airline collectible ......ONE of many that I have currently listed always HAPPY to combine items

Mount Cook Airline is an airline based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Formerly part of the Mount Cook Group, it is now wholly owned by Air New Zealand and operates scheduled services throughout the country under the Air New Zealand Link brand.

All aircraft are now in Air New Zealand livery. Its main base is Christchurch International Airport

The airline was established and started operations in 1920 at Timaru by Rodolph Lysaght Wigley, who in 1906 had driven the first motor car to The Hermitage. Wigley bought five war-surplus aircraft for sightseeing and formed the NZ Aero Transport Co., the first company of its kind in the country. The first aeroplane to land in Fairlie was a war surplus bi-plane E 4242 in May 1920 still with the RAF roundel on the fuselage. Passenger and freight routes served areas between Wellington and Invercargill. On October 1920 with Captain J. C. Mercer, Wigley flew on the first one-day flight from Invercargill to Auckland. After a series of mishaps, e.g. damage to landing equipment during forced landings in paddocks, the company went into liquidation in 1923.

In the 1930s, Wigley formed Queenstown - Mount Cook Airway in conjunction with his son, Harry, later to become Sir Henry Wigley. Sir Henry remained the Managing Director of the airline until 1979 and Chairman until his death in 1980. The company operated charter flights around the Otago Lakes, Milford Sound and Mount Cook regions, until it was suspended by WW2

Mount Cook Ski Planes now operates a fleet of Cessna 185s and Pilatus Porters, and is the only company to land scenic flights on the Tasman Glacier to this day.